


The God Of Less Than Nothing, or, The Survivors Fight Once More

by LeftHandMan



Series: Guardians [4]
Category: Guardians of the Elements
Genre: M/M, Multi, if i list all the characters im gonna be here all day okay, it's like infinity war except dumb, shoot me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-07 02:26:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15208796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeftHandMan/pseuds/LeftHandMan
Summary: This is a story about space teenagers written by an author who needs to lighten the fuck up. Buckle in, folks.





	1. Ajay- The Writer Is Very Concise With What They're Saying

**Author's Note:**

> Here's the prologue  
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CDds79rhW_xKV6F-tVNmviVyKl7JlEnfEdDp6fBk7bU/edit?usp=sharing  
> Also which of you goblins are reading the series out of order fess up book two has the most goin on and the least views on it somebody's doin somethin funky around here

“I know you suffer, child,” a voice called to me, “I know your beloved suffers as well. There may be a way to cease this suffering. I can help you both.”

A shock struck through my brain, and I snapped upwards from the bed. “SHIT!” I exclaimed, almost activating my armour out of fright. My surrounds clicked back into place. I was in my bedroom, Ian at my side, waking up slowly, moonlight striking me in the face from the window.

“What is it?” Ian asked, his mouth barely forming the words.

“Sorry, I, I dunno,” I said, laying back down, “just a weird dream, I think. Nothing important.”

“Was it, like, a PTSD-scared of the past dream,” he asked, curving in towards me, “or like a foreshadow-y space magic dream?”

“It was just a dream,” I dismissed him, turning away, “I just have bad dreams sometimes.”

“That doesn’t sound like what someone who had just a normal bad dream would say,” he said. I could practically hear his concerned frown in his voice. “What was it?”

“Just… I don’t know,” I said. The dream had almost faded from my mind by now. “I think… I think someone was offering me something. I can’t remember.”

“Alright,” he allowed, “but, if you’re lying to me-”

“I’m not, okay?” I said, “I’ve taken enough blows to the head man, I’m allowed to forget shit.”

“Alright,” he said with a sleepy, resigned laugh, “hope you didn’t forget to get your prom tux, though.”

My eyes snapped open. “Shit.”

“It’s fine,” he mumbled, turning back into the pillow, “we can get you a dress instead.”

“I’m not wearing a dress,” I grumbled back.

“You know you’d look great in one, dude,” he teased. I couldn’t tell if he was kidding or not. “Just gotta get the right colours-”

“I’m not wearing a bloody dress,” I repeated.

“You say that now,” he said, “but once you ge-” He stopped halfway through his word, and began to cough violently.

“You alright dude?” I asked. No response, other than continued and increasingly aggressive coughs. I turned over, and grabbed him by the shoulder. “Hey, man-” He snapped around, his wide open eyes like twin moons. “Ian?” I prompted.

Then, just as quick as it happened, it stopped. “What?” he asked, his eyes still wide, but with confusion more than… whatever the hell that was.

“You went weird there for a second,” I told him.

“Did I?” he asked, “Shit, sorry. What’d I do?”

“You were, like, coughing,” I said, suddenly realizing how inane that sounded, “but, like, I dunno…”

“Probably nothing,” he assured me, “let’s get back to sleep, aight?”

“Sure,” I said, rolling back over, “but I hate that you can use ‘aight’ in a completely serious, non-ironic sense.”

He chuckled. “G’night, space boyfriend.”

“Shut up, space boyfriend.”

  
  


“SHIT! SCHOOL!” I woke up five hours later at ten in morning, when we should’ve been done with first period, scrambling to get my clothes on and out the door, “Come on, shithead we gotta go!”

“You know,” Ian said, slumping lazily out of the bedroom doorway, “those insults aren’t as endearing as you think they are.”

“Shut up and eat this,” I said, pulling a pair of jeans up my legs with one hand, and tossing a hand-burnt slice of toast his way with the other. It flew like a shuriken, and bopped him in the face.

“Oh, fuck,” he muttered, scraping it up from the floor, “well, at least you didn’t butter it… hey, you didn’t butter it! If I was actually awake I might be mildly pissed at you.”

“Be mildly pissed at me later then,” I replied, scraping my backpack from the floor, and quickly shoving the half-empty water bottle back in, “grab your bag and we’re outta here.”

“But you didn’t pack lu-”

“We can grab lunch later!” I said, “We’re demigods and I have wings, we can figure something out.”

“So, remind me,” Ian said, slowly putting on a t-shirt, “why do we have to go to high school if we’re demigods and when you have wings?”

“Because saving the universe is, unfairly, not a viable career option,” I said, shifting through a pile of his used laundry for whatever was least disgusting, “it’s like having a degree in philosophy; it’s mentally distressing and pays less than McDonald’s. Wear this.” I flung a pair of khakis his way, and the legs were slung around his neck like a horseshoe.

“Great,” he said, donning the pants, “we have to part-time at Tim Horton’s while we save the universe from bullshit every other week.”

“Exactly,” I said, and flung his backpack at him, surprisingly not hitting his face this time. Instead, it hit him in the stomach, and he fell over, not even trying to resist it.

“Ow.”

“Come on,” I said, and walked over to pull him upright, “we still have history and physics left. Meet you outside, mwah.” I planted a kiss on his cheek, and rushed out to the front porch. Just a few moments later, and he came out behind me, locking the door with his guardstaff (we were too lazy and forgetful to make an actual key for that shit so we were lazy and used space magic instead).

“Ready,” he said, stepping out in front of me and punctuating his statement with a yawn.

“Alrighty,” I said, and held his hands. I focused my mind, and my armour began to appear on my body. Metal plates shuffled into reality, coating my skin and compressing my clothes. I could feel through the plates like they were skin. It was cold out. Like, painfully cold. Nova Scotia summers are dumb.

Then, a tug on my shoulder blades, and I felt my wings come into being. Draconic sails as big as my body, expanding to catch the wind. “Get ready for takeoff,” I said, and flapped my wings, rising off the ground. A few more flaps, and Ian and I were both in the air. Could we have taken a car instead? Probably, but that’s lame.

We soared through the sky, each long sweep of my wings giving us a few good seconds of solid air.

“Think you’ll ever get tired of flying?” I asked Ian.

“Nah,” he said, a smile in his voice.

“I know I did,” I said, “after, like, the fifth day I had to fly you to fucking Walmart for groceries.”

“Thanks for that, by the way,” he replied.

“You drink too much milk,” I complained. I’ll admit, it was hard to keep a smile off my face when he pulled his dumb bullshit. “You see the school anywhere?”

“Uhh,” he muttered, scanning the dull, grey surroundings of the city, “it’s past the Sobeys, yeah?”

“Oh, son of a bitch, I went the wrong way,” I grumbled, “I missed the bloody Tim’s, didn’t I?”

“Think so,” he concurred, “uhh, maybe a right at the Superstore?”

“Let’s hope,” I answered, and we carried on our way. After some obtuse turns and further where-the-fuck-are-wes, I spied the school, its distinctive J shape catching my eye. Solomon had a real dedication to recreating the most useless shit in perfect detail, the school looked just the same as it did when I first arrived… fuck, how many years ago was it?

“Coming in for a landing,” I declared, and angled myself slightly down towards the pavement.

“Got it!” he said, and tightened his grip on my hands. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to tighten my grip back.

We accelerated towards the ground, and I dropped him inches above the sidewalk, and he landed safely, a slight “Oof!” escaping his mouth as he hit the pavement. I retracted my wings and armour, angling myself in the air so I landed heels-first.

“Come on,” I said, “we’re gonna miss history.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” he replied. I smirked silently, and walked into the building. As I passed the threshold, the bell rang, and the raucous noise of a thousand bored teenagers flooded the air.

“Yup, we missed it,” I said, “just in time for the lunch we don’t have.”

“Excellent.”


	2. Ian- Half Jewish, Remember?

“Hey, would you mind flying to get something from, like, McDonald’s, maybe?” I asked Ajay.

He frowned and sighed. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“No bacon, remember!” I reminded him.

“Yes, I know,” he said, stepping back out the front door, “see you in a bit, dumbass.”

“Thank you!” I said. In time with the door closing as he left, I blinked, and suddenly my throat felt raw, and the ruckus of the hallway had died down. That was a drastic change, I thought to myself. I paid it no mind, and shuffled off to my locker. 

The metal rectangle was high on the third floor, and I had to climb two flights of stairs to get to it. I felt like an athlete, something no man should ever feel. I spun the lock, pulled it away, and caught the physics textbook as it tried to stage an ambush on my scalp. I shoved the rebellious tome back on top of the pile of scribbled-on papers that I didn’t care to pass in and got zeroes on as a result. I flung my backpack in, whipping my water bottle out of it before slamming the locker shut.

I meandered around the hallways, and eventually discovered Alex on the second floor, bonding with Xander over a pair of bread meals. I waved to them, and Alex beckoned me towards them, not trying to hide the sandwich that was currently being chewed, instead revealing it with a broad smile. I smirked, and walked towards them.

“Hey,” I said, “what’re you guys up to?”

“What the hell does it look like?” Xander said flatly, taking a melancholy bite out of a ham sandwich with lettuce.

“Somehow he’s never had a sandwich before,” Alex said, shoving the bits of food in her mouth into her cheeks, “but TBH any food Chaos or his dad woulda given him would probably have been, like, space grubs or some shit.”

“It wasn’t grubs,” Xander denied, “it was mostly just salvaged meat from ransacked houses that survived the initial destruction. Also, what’s ‘TBH’?”

“‘To be honest’,” Alex explained, “it’s an acronym.”

“A necro what?” Xander questioned.

Alex laughed. “Not necro,  _ an _ acronym. It’s like when you take the first letters of a series of words and, like, string ‘em together to make… I dunno, a bunch of letters you say out loud instead of the actual words.”

“That sounds fucking stupid,” Xander said unabashedly.

“The wonders of the english language, my boy,” Alex said jovially, and took another bite out of the sandwich.

“So, how’s the boyfriend?” I asked Xander.

He shrugged. “No clue.”

“No clue? How could you have no clue?”

“Solomon sent him off to space for a thing, haven’t seen him in a week.”

“What kinda space thing?”

“Fuck if I know,” he said, and took another uninterested bite out of his sandwich. “How about yours?”

“Gay,” I said casually.

“What?” he asked.

“Are… are you serious?” I asked. “Do you… do you not know what gay means?”

“I spent most of my life killing entire civilizations at the side of an egomaniacal psychopath and a dad who looked like, as Alex puts it, an eldritch abomination,” he said, “forgive me if I’m not caught up on human terminology.”

“Well, gay means being attracted to people of the same sex or gender as you,” Alex explained, “so, for you, that means being attracted to other boys.”

“Are there  _ other _ kinds of attraction?” he asked, seemingly in earnest. Alex and I exchanged shocked glances.

“Do you… how much do you know about sexuality?” I asked him.

“I don’t know what the word means,” he answered, “but I thought people were just supposed to be attracted to boys.” Alex and I exchanged glances again.

“Did you not know that people are attracted to girls, too?”

“What.”

Alex almost spat out her sandwich. She stifled a laugh, but it still showed up in her voice as she said, “Boy, we need to learn you a few things about stuff.”

I chuckled, but then I was suddenly standing up, my throat hurting again. Alex and Xander were staring up at me, confused. “You alright, man?” Alex asked, “What was that?”

“What was-? I don- I don’t know,” I stammered, “did I do something weird?”

“You just stood up and started coughing,” Alex told me, “what was that about?”

“I- I don’t know,” I answered, “it’s probably nothing.”

A moment later, Ajay came up behind us, and plonked a McDonald’s bag on the table. “I have the meats,” he declared.

“That’s Arby’s,” I corrected him, and began to rifle through the bag.

“Do I look like the kinda person who give a shit?” he asked, and pulled up a chair.

“Which one’s mine?” I asked, pulling a pair of hamburger boxes out of the bag. 

“This one’s mine,” he answered, taking one out of my hand, “and the other’s yours. Dig in.”

I popped the top open, and a meager quarter pounder was revealed. A quarter pounder with cheese. Son of a bitch.

“Oh, fucking- I can’t eat this,” I said, “it’s fuck- it’s got cheese on it!”

“Why the hell not?” Ajay asked, putting his angus burger to his mouth.

“It’s fu- I can’t eat beef and cheese in the same thing, you know this!”

“Since when do you care about being kosher?” he questioned me.

“Since when have I  _ not?”  _ I countered.

“One time I saw you eat half a meat lover’s pizza all by yourself,” he answered, “you can’t say anything about being kosher.”

“He’s got you there,” Alex backed him up.

“I- you-!” I stammered, but sighed, and peeled the cheese off the burger. “Next time, get something with chicken.” He rolled his eyes, but planted a ketchupy kiss on my cheek. I wiped the red smear off, but smiled anyways. 

“So,” Ajay began, “any word from Aubrey?”

“Yeah,” Alex answered, “they’ve been doing well, say they’ve been-”

“They?” I inquired.

“Oh, shit, I forgot to mention,” Alex said, swallowing the last of the sandwich she had been so diligently munching on this whole time, “Aubrey’s agender.”

“Oh, fun,” I commented, “I feel like that’s going to be one more thing she’s-  _ they’re _ going to love correcting me on.”

Alex raised an eyebrow at me. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” I defended myself, “Partially.”

_ “Ian,” _ she said, raising the eyebrow further.

I sighed, and said, “Fiiiiine, I promise I won’t get pissed.” The eyebrow ascended to almost scalp level. “Okay, I get it, I will respect their identity and only get pissed at them for non-gender related reasons.” The eyebrow descended, and she gave me a thumbs up.

We spent the rest of the lunch hour joking around and talking about sandwiches or something. I think I remember something about “But could you eat a  _ beesechurger? _ ” in there.

“So,” I asked, wiping condiments from my lip, “how’s Lena doing?”

The bell rang, and Alex slapped her forehead in remembrance. “Oh, crap, I need to check on her. Hey, you guys get to class or whatever, and I’ll see ya later, yeah?”

“Cool,” I said, “see you later, man.”

“Laters, nerd,” she said, and tousled my hair as she got up to leave.

“So, what class do we have next?” I asked Ajay.

“Physics,” he answered, shoving the refuse of the meal back into the bag.

“Oh, great,” I said, “can’t wait to fail another class.”

“Look on the bright side,” Ajay said, “at least we know we have McDonald’s jobs to fall back on.”

“Lovely.”


	3. Alex- Momma's Little Monster

“Lenaaa,” I said, creaking the front door open, “it’s Alex. Are you awake?” The lights in our shared house were still out, and I could hear her grunt and sigh in her sleep in her room. “Nope, still asleep,” I said to myself.

I stalked through the hall on my tiptoes, carefully lowering my bag to the floor, careful not to wake her.

Solomon told me that she was homeless when we moved in. It’s a miracle she went to school at all, even if it did result in a string of brutalized faces, broken bones, and desecrated genitals.

Likewise, it was a miracle when we got her to sleep, even if I had to slip sleeping pills into her apple juice. For whatever reason, she always craved apple juice, it was the one thing we could count on as a bribe for her.

If we didn’t medicate her, she was known to go weeks without sleep, usually followed by mutilations of unwitting civilians. The meds we had her on usually kept her under for twelve hours or so, and it was a pretty heavy sleep, unless a floorboard decided to creak or a door elected to squeak.

I crept into her bedroom, and pushed the door quietly inwards. She was half laying on the bed, half trying to impersonate a slug who was allergic to beds.

I smiled at her. “Hey, girl,” I whispered, as if she were a sleeping dog. I pushed her back onto the bed, and pulled the blankets back on top of her. I pulled the blanket up to her neck, and then took notice of her bad shoulder.

Well, I call it a bad shoulder, but I’m not sure if you can call any limb that’s been severed and replaced with a magic weapon ‘bad’. But, looking at it now, it might not be the greatest thing ever, either.

Shoving a weapon hilt into your shoulder was, by no means, a good or safe idea. It stuck out from the base, not quite a stump, but not perfectly flush with the skin. Around where she had shoved the thing had become infected, yellow-white something forming in scabs around the hilt. I winced as I saw it. For obvious reasons, I couldn’t pull it out, nor did I have any kind of replacement for her.

I sighed, and patted the remains of the actual shoulder. “Sleep tight, little lady.” I placed a kiss on her forehead, and walked back out of the room.

I grabbed my bag, and plopped down on the couch, television still off and curtains drawn. I pawed through the bag for anything to snack on. A single granola bar brushed against the palm of my hand, and I pulled it back out in success.

“Hooray for me,” I said to myself, pulling the wrapper off the bar. “Aaand I need to stop talking to myself. That’s a bit weird, Alex, not gonna lie. Yeah well what do you know.” I bit into the bar, and wondered how much longer I had to myself. My internal clock said “yeah you got time”, but whatever goblin runs my logic centers said “you have five seconds or Solomon will kill you on sight.” I went with the former.

I chewed away at the granola bar, and thought of what to do next. Should I tell Solomon about Lena’s arm? I mean, an infection like that…

I decided that she needed a new arm. Not only was it getting gross, but it was a pretty horrible enabler; who’s going to stop you when you’ve got a giant pink cannon made of magic pointed at your crotch? (The answer is Ajay and unsuccessfully.)

I finished the bar off, placed the wrapper in a place that I would claim was the garbage at a later date, and zipped my bag back up. I walked back out to my truck (Lena crashed the other car) and rolled away back to the school.

  
  


I knocked on the door to Solomon’s office. He pulled the door open, and greeted me, saying, “Ah, Alex! Aren’t you supposed to be in biology by now?”

“Well, supposed to be and actually being are two very different things,” I said with a weak chuckle, “there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Well, have a seat,” he said with a teacherly smile.

“I wanted to talk to you about Lena,” I said, taking the aforementioned seat.

“What about her?” Solomon enquired, sitting down behind his desk, “Is she unwell?”

“Well, uh, I guess?” I told him, “It’s… her arm, y’know, the one that has the-” I held up my guardstaff- “this guy.”

“What about it?” he asked.

“It’s- I think it’s infected,” I informed him, “it’s gotten, like, all gross around the base.”

“Well, is there anything you would like me to do about it?” he asked, “I’m an exceptionally busy man, these days. Chaos destabilized the world’s governments, so I’ve had to function as the, well, what is the most culturally relevant example these days? Illuminati, yes, that’s the one. Not to mention I have to teach my classes and-”

“I think she just needs, like, a new arm,” I said, regretting my interruption.

“What kind?” Solomon asked. I could tell his crystalline brain was already moving a mile a minute trying to come up with an inventive solution.

“I think just something… Earth-y,” I said, “I think it would be best if we just went with, like, a normal… frick, what’s the word? Not implant, uh, prosthetic! That’s the one.”

Solomon almost looked disappointed. His face changed from interested and intrigued back to patiently parental. I am on fire with these alliterations today, huh?

“Well, I suppose I could set something up,” he said, “you want an Earth doctor, yes?”

“Yeeesss,” I said suspiciously.

“I will speak with the local hospitals, then,” he said, “I’m sure we can find something for Lena. Now, I believe you were supposed to be in class, yes?”

“No,” I said, too quickly for it to be believable.

He raised an eyebrow. “ _Alex,_ ” he said, “you know I have your schedule.”

I shrugged and gave him a smile. “Couldn’t hurt to try.”

“Yes it could,” he said, and, before I could listen to what would be an hours-long screed that took up the rest of the school week, I got up and left.

“See yah, Solo,” I said, and tipped an imaginary cap to him as I closed the door. Sweet cheese and crackers I could’ve fallen down a very deep rabbit hole if I had let him go even a second longer.

I wandered back to class, and arrived as Mr Wozney (yes, somehow that’s a real name, and I thought _Xaneeta_ was bad,) was finishing up a lecture on the importance of semicolons. I found a spot by the window, and poorly feigned listening as I stared out the window up the biology classroom.

Just a couple more months until I was gonna leave this place. I was gonna miss it, but I was happy to ditch the five-thousand word essays. I was gonna leave behind a lot of friends, a lot of people I grew up with.

But that wasn’t anything new to me.


	4. Ian- Lilo And Stitch 2 Ripoff

The sun was setting by the time we got home, which was either a result of Ajay making us walk the whole way, or Solomon fucked up the orbits again. I’m going with a bit of both. Somebody needed to take away his celestial rearrangement privileges. 

“You could’ve flown, you know,” I told Ajay, “no need to make yourself work more than you have to.

“I know,” he said, looking to the horizon, “I just wanted to spend a little more time with you.”

I smiled. I might’ve blushed, but that might’ve been the sun’s doing. “We spend all day with each other,” I said, “I’d’ve thought you’d want to get away from me.”

He grabbed my hand. “Why on earth would I want to do that?”

I smiled, and we nuzzled foreheads. I always liked this feeling. Then I tripped on my own foot. That felt less good.

“SHIT!” I cried out, but Ajay caught me as I fell, one arm swiping up my hand and the other cradling my back. 

“Oh, heh,” escaped from my mouth, and I smiled and blushed again. He was giving me a frustrated but caring smile back. I could tell he wasn’t especially opposed to this mistake of mine. 

He pulled me up wordlessly, and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “You’re an absolute moron, you know that?”

“Yeah,” I said, “you remind me every day.”

“One of two things I remind you of every day,” he returned.

“What’s the second?” I asked.

“To get rid of your fucking tissues, dipshit,” he said. I laughed, and it echoed through the cul-de-sac. 

“Oh, and there’s a third,” he said, and whispered into my ear, “I love you, you fucking moron.”

I smiled yet again. Apparently that’s the one thing I’m allowed to do today. Aside from fall down. Which I did again. Onto the concrete. Without my armour on. Ow.

“Gah!” I exclaimed as my head hit the pavement. Ajay helped me up again, but my head still ached like hell. Not only was there a pain where I collided, but in my forehead, too.

“You alright?” he asked.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” I told him, “little, y’know, ow.”

“Now you know how I feel,” he joked. 

  
  
  


We arrived at home, and began to de-escalate with a sad concoction of noodles with grated cheese that really didn’t want to integrate or disintegrate, and instead formed a few lactic nation-states that took like three bites each to finish off. Well, they weren’t terrible, so Ajay’s cooking was getting better. I love that man but he could burn water. I think he has, actually. Don’t quote me on that one.

“Wanna watch something?” he asked, stowing the cheese-stained dishes into the dishwasher. 

“How about  _ Queer Eye _ ?” I proposed.

“We have enough of those in this house,” he joked snidely.

I laughed at him. “You and I both need contact lenses, ours aren’t good enough!”

He smiled and chuckled back. “Fine, one episode then off to bed. We have school in the morning.”

“Since when are you the parent?” I said, and returned to the couch with him. That’s when I realized I had left myself open for attack.

“Wait,” I commanded.

“You walked right into that one.”

“Don’t fucking say it-”

“I’m gonna-!”

“You are legally not allowed to finish that thought!”

_ “Since you started calling me daddy!” _ FUCK. SHIT. I WALKED RIGHT INTO THAT ONE SON OF A BITCH.

Ajay erupted into raucous laughter, and I began to recoil in pain. “SON OF A- GAH, DAMMIT! I NEVER SAID THAT!” If I wanted to shrink any more I would have to fuse my fucking vertebrae.

_ “Yes you fucking did!” _ he said, wheezing with laughter,  _ “Just last week! Just last week!” _

“Fuck this, fuck me, fuck you,” I grumbled as he laughed my funeral dirge.

“Yeah, that was what was going on, wasn’t it?” he said, a shit-eating grin plastered on his face. By Alpha I wanted to smack that idiot to high heaven, but I had never seen him this overtly pleased with himself. I’m not sure I’d even seen him laugh beyond a charmed chuckle. Obviously, I was usually the one doing the charming. It wasn’t a bad look on him.

I gave in to the foolishness of the situation, and commanded the television to put on Queer Eye with the telepathy I totally had that wasn’t the TV being a mind-reading weirdo. It put on porn. Well, at least I was in the general ballpark of gay guys.

“Fuck,” I swore, and tried to tune the channel back to what I wanted.

“You know we have a remote now, right?” Ajay reminded me, still looking giddy.

“Oh son of a- why don’t you tell me things?!” I complained. He smiled and rolled his eyes at me, finally putting on the right show. Well, at least one of us is a half-functioning approximation of a human being. Glad it’s not me.

  
  
  


An hour later, we pulled into bed, and finally began to cool down for sleep. Our teeth were brushed, we showered together because I am a liability in there, and undressed for the night.

“Hey, I said, discarding my shirt on the floor, “did we have any homework?”

“We spent half our school day sleeping in,” he said, “I barely know what classes we’re in, at this point.”

I laughed a little, and slid under the covers. “Well, if Solomon busts down the door with a weaponized rubric in hand, you’re taking the brunt of the assault.”

He chuckled. “Jackass,” he said under his breath.

“Thanks, I know,” I said. Ajay tossed his shirt in the general direction of the closet, and flicked off the lights. 

He shuffled under the covers, laying beside me. “I love you, jackass,” he said, then planted a quiet kiss on my cheek.

“I know that one, too,” I declared, and kissed him back. We smiled in the dark, and drifted off into sleep.

  
  
  


“Good morning,” I greeted him as we woke up. He had wound up with his head pressed up against the back of mine, arms wrapped around me yet somehow avoiding any areas of interest.

“Hey,” he said, his voice a phlegm-encrusted rumble. 

“How’d ya sleep?” I muttered.

“With my eyes closed,” he answered.

“Hah,” I mumbled, “save that one for the comedy club, champ.”

“Piss off,” he said, rolling backwards. “What fucking time is it?”

I pawed at the nightstand, and grabbed at the clock. “Six-o-nine.”

He looked at it over my shoulder. “That says nine-o-six.”

“What?”

“You got it upside-down, idiot,” he chided me, “look at the little colon or whatever. The dot-dots.”

“Wha-?” I looked at the clock again. “Oh, shit, you’re right.”

“Son of a bitch we’re going to be late again,” he said, and rushed out of bed. “Get your clothes on. We can’t keep doing this, honestly.”

“Yeah, yeah, you do that I’ll catch…” I almost drifted back to sleep again, but I was shot back to alertness as Ajay gave me a gentle slap on the cheek to wake me up. Suddenly, he was fully dressed and the ceiling light was blasting my retinas.

“Come on, we need to get going,” he reminded me, “and what’s with that cough of yours?”

“What cough?” I asked.

“You keep having like coughing fits or whatever,” he elaborated, throwing clothes at me, “I think you have a cold or something.”

“Weird,” I said, slowly getting the clothes on. “Remind me to go to a walk-in or something soon.”

“How are you just now realizing this?” he asked me.

“I don’t,” I muttered, “I don’t… know. I can’t remember any coughing.”

He looked at me concerned. “Maybe we should tell Solomon about this, or something.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” I dismissed him, “give it a week and it’ll be-”

Suddenly, I was standing over him, guardstaff scimitar raised over my head. He was on the floor, bruised and scraped like he’d taken a beating. His gladius was drawn, and uncertainty filled his darting eyes.

“Fine...”


	5. Ajay- I'm Not Strong Enough

Ian’s scimitar dissipated, fear crossing his face with lightning speed. “No, no, wha-what is happening? Did I- what did-?!”

He stepped back off me, and stammered backwards into the wall. “This can’t be- no! I just-!”

“Ian, just calm down, okay?” I tried. He might have just tried to beat me to a pulp, but that wasn’t the issue here. I wasn’t the best at comforting people, but I needed to try. “It’s gonna be okay, alright?”

“No, I- what was that?! What did I do?!” he asked. He was holding his head in his hands, hyperventilating and terrified of the unknown seconds that he had lost.

“I’m sure it’s not-”

“No!” he exclaimed, “No, no, I can’t be doing this! First the- the cutting and now-! And now-!” He collapsed against the wall. “No, no, no!”

“Ian, just calm the fuck down!”

“Calm down?!” he said, almost a scream, “I just attacked you and I- and I had no idea I was doing it!”

“Whatever’s going on I’m sure we can-”

“No! No we can’t!” He rose to his feet in terrified anger. “Chaos’ stone must’ve- must be- I don’t know!”

“JUST CALM DOWN!” I shouted at him, half-ready to take my gladius out again. 

“NO!” he shouted back, “If this is- I’m going to do this again, I know it! I’m going to do it again!”

“JUST SHUT UP! SHUT UP!” I shouted, “WE CAN FIX THIS! SOLOMON CAN FIX THIS WE ALWAYS FIX THIS!”

“NOT THIS! WE CAN’T FIX THIS! Listen, I took- I took Chaos into my head and I- I think he’s- I think he’s wormed his way into my brain and I- and I think he’s trying to take control!”

“How the hell would that work, huh? He’s not even alive, he’s- he’s not even in your head, he’s just a rock!”

“I can’t- I can’t do this again! I can’t let this happen again!” he said, inching across the wall towards the door, “If I do this again he might- I might kill you! I can’t do that! I need to- I have to leave.”

He shuffled to the door, and fumbled with the handle from behind.

“I’m sorry.” 

“Ian, no!” I demanded. 

He pushed the door backwards, and began to run out of the house.

“STOP IT!” I screamed. I ran after him, my feet pounding the hardwood floor.

“I HAVE TO!” he shouted back. He barged out the front door, not even wearing shoes. 

“I said-” I charged through the door, my wings shooting out of my back, and I soared over him and landed in his path. “-STOP IT!”

“I HAVE TO LEAVE!” he screamed. Tears were streaming down his face as he spoke, a terrified grimace stretched across his face. 

“No you don’t!” I shouted back, “We can fix this! I can- someone can help you!”

“What’s going on out here?” Alex had stepped out of her house from across the street, and was observing the devolving situation from afar.

“I- I-!” Ian stammered, “I have to go!”

“I won’t let you!” I spread my wings again, surrounding him with them. “You’re blowing this out of proportion!”

“Ajay,” he said, his lip quivering and his voice breaking, “I’m sorry.” In a flash of purple, he had vanished.

“NO!” I cried, my arm outstretched as I tried to reach him, but he had vanished. “No…” My wings collapsed inwards, and I collapsed on the ground. “Jackass…”

“What the hell just happened?!” Alex asked, confused and disoriented by our… whatever that was. “What were you two doing?!”

“He’s gone,” I said, not registering what she was saying. “I couldn’t stop him…”

Alex came to my side, and propped me up. “Okay, big boy, time to spill the explanation beans, what in the fresh hell was that?”

“I lost him again…”

Alex slapped me across the face. “CLARKESON! Get a hold of yourself!”

“HE LEFT!” I shouted back at her. “He left, okay?! He- he went crazy for some reason and attacked me, and then he left!”

“What?” Alex asked, puzzled.

“I think- I think something was messing with his head. He didn’t remember- he didn’t mean to attack me, he just did it.”

Alex frowned down at me in contemplation. “Let’s get you back inside. I’ll call Solomon.” She hoisted me to my feet, and helped me limp back into our- into my house.

  
  
  


“And you say he didn’t remember?” Solomon asked. He was sitting across from the couch on a chair he had nicked from the kitchen. It had been a few hours, and the day was half-gone. 

“No,” I said. I was wrapped in blankets, now, not compensating for weather or sickness, but because Alex claimed that blankets are like bandages for emotions. I have no idea what the hell she was talking about. “He didn’t remember the coughing fits, either. There’s also been some… other times, when he would… when he would hurt himself, but he wouldn’t be in control then, either.”

Solomon took a long, contemplative sip from his Tim Horton’s cup, then held it tenderly between his legs. “Ajay, I’m sorry to say this, but I believe it might be best for us to leave Ian alone, for the time being. I might send out a search party, but he is hardly up to par with my brother in terms of the danger he poses. More than anything, he’d only wind up a public nuisance.”

I wanted to argue, but the blankets kept me docile. That, and nobody could take an angsty teenager wrapped in comforters seriously if they tried. “Okay,” I conceded, “but we need to find him eventually. I just can’t-”

“Ajay,” Solomon said softly, placing his cup on the coffee table, “I think it would be best to give him some time alone. We might be almost like family to him, but, given the trials he’s been put through, I’m afraid we might not conjure especially pleasant memories. And, if he’s afraid to hurt us… we might aggravate his condition.”

Alex, who was sitting beside me, put her hand on where blankets were covering mine, and she gave me a sympathetic look. “It’s going to be okay, man.”

I couldn’t tell which emotion to express. I was angry, sad, upset, humiliated- the one thing that came to mind was to slash everyone in this room to bits so that nobody would bother me anymore. Instead, my mind became dull from the stress, and I began to become sleepy again. I didn’t want to face this reality, so I didn’t. I passed out on the couch, covered in blankets, my closest friend and my teacher the only witnesses to my failing.

My consciousness waned in and out for a few minutes, and I saw Alex and Solomon leave, and I was all alone in the house.

All alone in the house built for two.


End file.
